This application relates to a ballistic laminate structure in sheet form, a ballistic panel constructed of a plurality of the sheets, a ballistic garment constructed of one or more of the ballistic panels, and a method of fabricating a ballistic laminate structure, and a ballistic resistant composite for hard-armor application.
Numerous ballistic laminates are known in the art including those described in Applicants own U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,437,905; 5,443,883; 5,547,536; 5,635,288; 5,935,678; and 5,952,078. The complete disclosure of each of these patents is incorporated herein by reference.
A ballistic non-woven laminate referred to commercially as SPECTRA SHIELD is manufactured by Honeywell, Inc. The laminate structure is used in soft body armor to protect the wearer against high-velocity bullets and fragments. SPECTRA SHIELD is made by first forming a non-woven unidirectional tape, composed of unidirectional polyethylene fibers and an elastic resin material that holds the fibers together. The resin penetrates to the filament level, impregnating the entire structure with the resin product. Two layers, or arrays, of the unidirectional tape are then laminated together (cross-plied) at right angles to form a panel. Then, the panel is covered on both sides with a thin film of polyethylene on the order of 0.001 inches thick. The film prevents adjacent panels from sticking together when the panels are layered together in the soft body armor.
Applicant's prior patents listed above describe a substantial improvement of this technology. Specifically, Applicant determined that ballistic laminates can be constructed of high performance fibers without using resins to hold the fibers together. This substantially reduces the weight of the structure without compromising the anti-ballistic characteristics of the structure. By omitting the resin, the cross-plied arrays of fibers directly contact each other, instead of being encapsulated and therefore separated from each other by the resin. An ultra-thin film is used both to cover the cross-plied arrays and to hold the arrays to each other. The prior art teaches that a critical limit of 80% fiber must be maintained in the laminate in order to maintain product integrity. If the percentage of resin, covers, and the like exceeds 20%, the anti-ballistic qualities of the laminate begin to degrade.
As a further improvement, Applicant recently discovered unexpected advantages in using a scrim to hold and stabilize the high performance fibers prior to lamination. The resulting laminate structure offers substantially enhanced ballistic performance. The scrim adds little weight to the final product, provides durable bonding and anti-fray performance, and is dry-clean resistant.